Iqbal Hamza

Section

Biography

Education:

1985-1989: B.Sc., University of Bombay, Biochemistry and Life Sciences 1989-1991: M.Sc., University of Bombay, Biochemistry 1991-1997: Ph.D., State University of New York at Buffalo School of Medicine, Biochemistry2011 Sabbatical, Dr. Paul Liu, National Human Genome Research Institute, NIH, Bethesda, MD

The long-term objectives of my research program are to identify the genes and uncover the pathways for heme transport and trafficking in humans which have remained poorly understood. At the University of Maryland, I deliberately set out to uncover heme trafficking pathways in eukaryotes – which were unknown at the time. My pioneering work with the invertebrate animal model C. elegans has demonstrated that this roundworm is exceptional because it does not synthesize heme but rather utilizes environmental heme to manufacture heme-containing proteins, which have human homologs. This broke the existing paradigm that heme synthesis occurred in all free-living eukaryotes [PNAS 2005]. Using the worm model, my research group identified the first eukaryotic heme importer/transporter (HRG-1) which is conserved in zebrafish and humans [Nature 2008].

More recently, my group uncovered how heme is exported from the intestine to other tissues including the embryos by HRG-3 and ABCC5/MRP5 [Cell 2011; Cell Metabolism 2014]. These findings represent major discoveries in heme trafficking and establish a heuristic paradigm for heme transport in animals. Beyond C. elegans, we have shown that related free-living and parasitic nematodes (helminths) do not synthesize heme, much like Trypanosomes and Leishmania. Thus, selective targeting of parasite heme transport pathways could be their Achilles heel. Our groundbreaking studies resulted not only in the identification of homologs for heme transporters in humans [Cell Metabolism 2013] but also in parasites such as hookworms, filarial worms and Leishmania, which rely on host heme for survival [Infect Immun 2006, PLoS NTD. 2009; PLoS Path. 2012]. We anticipate that our studies will lead to identification of inhibitors that can target heme transport pathway in parasites which infect humans, livestock, and plants, as well as in humans with genetic disorders of heme and iron metabolism.